


Star Bright

by baltshake



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7725064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baltshake/pseuds/baltshake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the help of the Turks, Cloud and Zack escaped their fate as targets for the military's ambush. Now they must decide how to make a life for themselves and who they want to become.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star Bright

The Turks had found them right as they neared an ambush on the outskirts of Midgar. Man, they just never quit, huh? “They’re like bloodhounds,” Zack had told Cloud as he’d picked him up to get him into the helicopter. He’d later say he knew he was coming back because he thought he saw the younger smiling. 

They were flown to Costa Del Sol, a fact which Zack loudly protested – “Do you know how hard it was to get all the way here? C’mon, guys!” – but was expertly shut down by Cissnei. 

“What, so you can walk into a trap? It looks like those scientists couldn’t cure you for hard headedness.”

They were lucky to have her looking out for them, even if it had been Reno and Rude to pick them up and share a headset. Cloud didn’t remember all the details of the flight after that apart from the warm arm around him, a fair bit of noise from the helicopter, and the fact that he felt a bit motion sick.

That was his first solid memory of arriving at the hotel. Zack said he had suddenly turned green and curled up some. After spending quite a bit of time together before Cloud had entered the debilitated state he was in, Zack had known instantly what was about to happen and so rushed him to the nearest bathroom. So that was his first memory; leaning over a toilet and throwing up while Zack rubbed his back. Probably not the most grandest entrance into the fully waking world anyone had ever had but it ended up clearing out some of the mako still bubbling around inside of him.

The memories after that had become sharper for Cloud as he remembered Zack carrying him to their room. “I gotcha, Cloud. You’re safe now. We’re both safe.” Even he’d been able to tell the clear relief in the other’s voice. There hadn’t been a lot of safety since they’d escaped the labs. But those stories would come far later when Zack could remember Angeal’s face without looking so sad and remembering the numerous times they nearly didn’t make it.

But peace could never last for long with them and Tsung was quick to enter their room. Cloud had raised his head just a bit in acknowledgement before he was tucking himself closer to Zack’s side, grateful when familiar arms squeezed around him to keep him close. 

He still was too weak to really do much of anything but he could listen. Zack’s side of the story was that they’d been hunted ever since they left the labs. He’d defeated Genesis and Hollander and Lazard had died to help them too. Cloud had closed his eyes at that. He didn’t want to imagine what Zack had gone through practically alone. He must have been scared even if he kept trying to keep both their spirits up.

“So we have to go back to Midgar! I wanna know why everyone was trying to kill us. I wanna see Aerith too.”

“It’s too dangerous for you both to go back there now. We need you to go into hiding until we can make sure you’d be safe there.”

“That’s crap!” Cloud had pressed himself closer to Zack at that outburst and perhaps that was why his voice was quieter as he tried to think and reason. “They’d never expect us to go back there. We could…I don’t know. We could change our names. The way we look. We both need haircuts anyway so we could dye them while we’re at it. And you could get us fake IDs, right?”

Tsung could, in fact, get them fake IDs along with other things they would need to disguise themselves. Zack’s hair was cut back to resemble how it had been when he’d become a 2nd Class SOLDIER and he’d dyed it a light brown. Contacts were provided so his eyes also looked brown though they had to be dark to keep the sign of mako out of sight. 

In turn, Cloud became a strawberry blond though Tsung suggested he wear a hat more often than not to keep his familiar spikes smothered. The contacts he’d been given made his eyes a fairly pale grey which Zack said he’d have to get used to seeing. 

With their pictures taken, they finally had to come down to their identities. Of course, neither of them could say they were from Gongaga or Nibelheim so they both chose Kalm. Their dates of birth also had to be changed but that was chosen at random as neither Zack nor Cloud cared too much.

“I just need names for both of you now,” Tsung had said, having been taking note of everything so he could turn them into ID cards later on. “I’m afraid you can’t keep either your first or last names.

Zack hadn’t even seemed to think about it before he said, “Hiro Star.” Cloud almost laughed when he saw the look of exasperation on Tsung’s face. “Oh c’mon, man! I have to choose a name and that’s a good one.” He’d pouted until the Turk leader gave in and turned to give Cloud a big grin of triumph. “What do you want your name to be? Oh man, you should just call yourself Spike. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Cloud had made a little face at that which prompted Zack to laughing and hugging him again. “Felix,” he finally decided, voice quiet and words slow. “Felix Star.”

Tsung frowned a bit at this as he looked between them. “If you had told me you wanted to be brothers, I would have given you disguises that looked similar,” he admonished but then stopped when Cloud shook his head some. 

“Not brothers,” he’d said as firmly as he could and looked away from Zack when he’d pulled back, trying to ignore the man’s round eyes. For the first time in what felt like forever, his face turned pink. “Husbands.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Day 2 of Clack Week! The prompt was "What If" so I chose "What if they escaped the ambush?" and "What if the Turks had found them?". As always, comments and critiques are always appreciated!! :D


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